Mermaid Poems

Here is a collection of mermaid poems, and some of the mermaid statues that may have inspired them – or been inspired by them.

The Mermaid

A mermaid found a swimming lad,Picked him for her own,Pressed her body to his body,Laughed; and plunging downForgot in cruel happinessThat even lovers drown.

- William Butler Yeats

Oberon

My gentle Puck, come hither.

Thou rememberest sinceOnce I sat upon a promontory,And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's backUttering such dulcet and harmonious breathThat the rude sea grew civil at her song,And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,To hear the sea-maid's music?

- William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Loreley

I do not know what haunts me,What saddened my mind all day;An age-old tale confounds me,A spell I cannot allay.

The air is cool and in twilightThe Rhine's dark waters flow;The peak of the mountain in highlightReflects the evening glow.

Antipholus

And as a bed I'll take them and there lie,And in that glorious supposition thinkHe gains by death that hath such means to die; Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink!

- William Shakespeare - Comedy of Errors

Mermaid

Leagues, leagues over the sea I sail Couched on a wallowing dolphin's tail.The sky is on fire, the waves a-sheen,I dabble my foot in the billows green.

In a sea-weed hat on the rocks I sit,where tern and sea-mew glide and beat,and where dark shadows the cormorants meet.

In caverns cool when the tide's a wash,I sound my conch to the watery splash.

From out their grottos at evenings beam,the mermaids swim with locks agleam.

- Walter De La Mare

The Merman

Who would be A merman bold,Sitting alone, Singing aloneUnder the sea, With a crown of gold,On a throne?

I would be a merman bold, I would sit and sing the whole of the day;I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power;But at night I would roam abroad and playWith the mermaids in and out of the rocks,Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower;And holding them back by their flowing locksI would kiss them often under the sea,And kiss them again till they kiss'd meLaughingly, laughingly;And then we would wander away, away,o the pale-green sea-groves straight and high,Chasing each other merrily.

There would be neither moon nor star;But the wave would make music above us afar-Low thunder and light in the magic night-Neither moon nor star.We would call aloud in the dreamy dells,Call to each other and whoop and cryAll night, merrily, merrily.

They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells,Laughing and clapping their hands between,All night, merrily, merrily,But I would throw to them back in mineTurkis and agate and almondine;Then leaping out upon them unseen

I would kiss them often under the sea,And kiss them again till they kiss'd meLaughingly, laughingly.0, what a happy life were mineUnder the hollow-hung ocean green!Soft are the moss-beds under the sea;We would live merrily, merrily.

- Lord Alfred Tennyson

Ariel

Full fathom five thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes:Nothing of him that doth fadeBut doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knellBurthen Ding-dongHark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell.

-William Shakespeare - The Tempest

Ulysses and the Siren

Siren:Come worthy Greek, Ulysses, come,Possess these shores with me;The winds and seas are troublesome,And here we may be free.Here may we sit and view their toilThat travail in the deep,And joy the day in mirth the while,And spend the night in sleep.

Ulysses:Fair nymph, if fame or honour wereTo be attain'd with ease,Then would I come and rest me there,And leave such toils as these.But here it dwells, and here must IWith danger seek it forth;To spend the time luxuriouslyBecomes not men of worth.

Siren:Ulysses, O be not deceiv'dWith that unreal name;This honour is a thing conceiv'dAnd rests on others' fame.Begotten only to molestOur peace, and to beguileThe best thing of our life, our rest,And give us up to toil.

Siren:Then pleasure likewise seems the shoreWhereto tends all your toil,Which you forgo to make it more,And perish oft the while.Who may disport them diversly,Find never tedious day,And ease may have varietyAs well as action may.

Ulysses:But natures of the noblest frameThese toils and dangers please,And they take comfort in the sameAs much as you in ease,And with the thoughts of actions pastAre recreated still;When pleasure leaves a touch at lastTo show that it was ill.

Siren:That doth opinion only causeThat's out of custom bred,Which makes us many other lawsThan ever nature did.No widows wail for our delights,Our sports are without blood;The world we see by warlike wightsReceives more hurt than good.

Ulysses:But yet the state of things requireThese motions of unrest,And these great spirits of high desireSeem born to turn them best,To purge the mischiefs that increaseAnd all good order mar;For oft we see a wicked peaceTo be well chang'd for war.

Siren:Well, well, Ulysses, then I seeI shall not have thee here,And therefore I will come to theeAnd take my fortunes there.I must be won that cannot win,Yet lost were I not won;For beauty hath created beenT' undo, or be undone.

- Samuel Daniel

The Mermaid

'Who would be a mermaid fair,singing alone, combing her hair,Under the sea, in a golden curl,with a comb of pearl,On a throne?

I would be a mermaid fair;I would sing to myself the whole of the day;With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;And still as I comb'd I would sing and say,"Who is it loves me? who loves not me?"

I would comb my hair till my ringlets would fallLow adown, low adown,From under my starry sea-bud crownLow adown and around,And I should look like a fountain of goldSpringing aloneWith a shrill inner sound,Over the throneIn the midst of the hall;Till that great sea-snake under the seaFrom his coiled sleeps in the central deepsWould slowly trail himself sevenfold

Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gateWith his large calm eyes for the love of me.And all the mermen under the seaWould feel their immortalityDie in their hearts for the love of me.

But at night I would wander away, away,I would fling on each side my low-flowing locks,And lightly vault from the throne and playWith the mermen in and out of the rocks;We would run to and fro, and hide and seekOn the broad sea-wolds in the crimson shells,Whose silvery spikes are nighest the sea.

But if any came near I would call, and shriek,And adown the steep like a wave I would leapFrom the diamond-ledges that jut from the dells;For I would not be kiss'd by all who would listOf the bold merry mermen under the sea.They would sue me, and woo me, and flatter me,In the purple twilights under the sea;But the king of them all would carry me,Woo me, and win me, and marry me,In the branching jaspers under the sea.

Then all the dry pied things that beIn the hueless mosses under the seaWould curl round my silver feet silently,All looking up for the love of me.And if I should carol aloud, from aloftAll things that are forked, and horned, and softWould lean out from the hollow sphere of the sea,All looking down for the love of me.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and singsBy the rushy-fringed bank,Where grows the willow and the osier dank,

My sliding chariot stays,Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheenOf turkis blue, and em'rald greenThat in the channel strays,Whilst from off the waters fleetThus I set my printless feetO'er the cowslip's velvet head,That bends not as I tread;Gentle swain at thy requestI am here.

- John Milton

The Sea Maid

To where I watch on the yellow sands,and they pluck sweet music with sea-cold hands.They bring me coral and amber clear.But when the stars in heaven appear,their music ceases, they glide away.They swim for their grottos across the bay.Then listen only to my shrill tune,the surfy tide, and the wondering moon.

- William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

Sam

When Sam goes back in memory,It is to where the seaBreaks on the shingle, emerald-green,In white foam, endlessly;

He says--with small brown eyes on mine-"I used to keep awake,And lean from my window in the moon,Watching those billows break.And half a million tiny hands,And eyes, like sparks of frost,Would dance and come tumbling into the moon,On every breaker tossed.

And all across from star to star,I've seen the watery sea,With not a single ship in sight,Just ocean there, and me;And heard my father snore. And once,As sure as I'm alive,Out of those wallowing, moon-flecked wavesI saw a mermaid dive;

Head and shoulders above the wave,Plain as I now see you,Combing her hair, now back, now front,Her two eyes peeping through;Calling me, (Sam!--quietlike--(Sam! . .But me . . . I never went,Making believe I kind of thought'Twas some one else she meant ...

Wonderful lovely there she sat,Singing the night away,All in the solitudinous seaOf that there lonely bay. "P'raps," and he'd smooth his hairless mouth,"P'raps, if 'twere now, my son,P'raps, if I heard a voice say, 'Sam!'...Morning would find me gone."

- Walter De La Mare

Little John Bottlejohn

Little John Bottlejohn lived on the hill, and a blithe little man was he.And he won the heart of a pretty mermaidWho lived in the deep blue sea.And every evening she used to sitAnd sing by the rocks of the sea,"Oh! little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,Won't you come out to me?"

Little John Bottlejohn heard her song,And he opened his little door,And he hopped and he skipped,and he skipped and he hopped,Until he came down to the shore.And there on the rocks sat the little mermaid,And still she was singing so free,"Oh! little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,Won't you come out to me?"

Little John Bottlejohn made a bow,And the mermaid, she made one too;And she said, "Oh! I never saw anyone halfSo perfectly sweet as you!In my lovely home 'neath the ocean foam,How happy we both might be!Oh! little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,Won't you come down with me?"Little John Bottlejohn said, "Oh yes!

I'll willingly go with you,And I never shall quail at the sight of your tail,For perhaps I may grow one, too."So he took her hand, and he left the land,And plunged in the foaming main.And little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,Never was seen again.

- Laura E. Richards

Sea-girls

Shall I part my hair? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk along the beach.I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.I do not think they sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaweed on the wavesCombing the white hair of the waves blown backWhen the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in chambers of the seaBy sea-girls wreathed with sea-weed of red and brownTill human voices wake us, and we drown.

“The Poet and the Mermaid”

Emerging from the blue waves A cheerful and mysterious deity, With fresh pink lips And an enchanting ivory breast. Her splendid raven hair Locks on her alabaster shoulders Her eyes have the glow of a star And the flashing fire of love.